In the presence of professor Khaled Sorour, head of the Fine Arts sector in Egypt, Mahmoud Mokhtar Museum hosts the “A Story of Her” exhibition of the leading artist Zeinab Nour, the associate professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Helwan University.
The photography exhibition runs between 8 and 19 March at Renaissance of Egypt Hall and is a result of a six-month journey for the artist in France, where she met a group of women in a feminist association named “Les Babayagas” in Montreuil, a suburb of Paris. The presented photos tell the stories of a number of women giving a closer look at their history, dreams, sufferings, and intimate lives.
“My new exhibition will present photography and photography installations of portraits of a group of Egyptian and French women—often above the age of sixty—in the form of a cultural, social humanist dialogue,” she said.
The photography installation style that was used by Nour a few years ago is probably the most important characteristic of her work, which has lately been showcased at numerous international events.
“From my point of view, the installation of any visual components can give a new value to the particles and parts, creating what looks like a story or a sense of conscious integration of something,” she added.
Living with these women has opened a wide door for the artist to contemplate how life of women beyond the age of 60 can look like in western and eastern societies—how each woman used to be and how she has become in her own eyes and the eyes of the society and how we can see the whole world through the eyes of this woman.
“Through my feminist photos group, I feel that the style of photographic installation that I use in some of the works may answer some of my own questions about a subject or a concept while raising some questions for the viewer at the same time,” she noted.
Because she always pays great attention to how the viewer perceives her work, she usually works on the pieces that appeal to herself the most.
“In each installation, there is something I am pointing at or a question that I am posing, and whether the viewer gets it or not, I’m seeking the work that is closer to me,” she added.
Although Nour has taken part in about 48 collective exhibitions in Egypt and abroad, this project has a special value for her: “the opening of the exhibition was scheduled coinciding with the International Women’s Day to raise awareness about women’s rights and roles in different societies,” she concluded.
